Facing angry parents, Daniel Boone School Board puts off program cuts

BIRDSBORO — With hundreds of parents packing the meeting, the Daniel Boone Area School Board agreed Monday to table plans to eliminate kindergarten, the elementary band, furlough staff and cut other programs to reduce the district‘s projected $5 million 2013-14 budget deficit.

District Solicitor Brian Subers told the board that school districts are no longer required to notify the state Department of Education — or ask for department approval — of intent to curtail programs. Districts only need to notify the education department of actions taken, he said.

If the board had voted to eliminate or reduce programs, the board would be required to vote to rescind its previous vote in order to include the programs in the budget.

“If that’s the case, it has to come off the agenda,” said board member Frank Cerminaro, adding, “We’re all agreed that we’re going to work out this budget until the last day.”

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The motion to table the curtailment was met by cheers from the hundreds of people that filled the seats in the Daniel Boone Middle School auditorium.

Programs and the supporting staff have not been eliminated, but they have also not been taken off the table.

Although it wasn’t the board’s intent Monday night to curtail kindergarten (only to notify the education department of the possible cut), residents lined up at the podium to voice their support of kindergarten and how much it is needed.

Various board members stated, sometimes heatedly, throughout the meeting that they value the kindergarten program, are not ready to curtail it, and asked instead that the public provide constructive ideas to balance the budget.

Several residents said they are interested in forming a task force to assist the board.

Laurel Reno, of Douglassville, is continuing to look at the district’s “4-Years Actual to Budget Expense and Revenue Including the Preliminary Budget as of Feb. 12” documents and offer suggestions and ideas.

“I’m not here to recommend that kindergarten be cut or programmatically to cut extracurricular activities, but there is a financial problem — we have a $5 million budget gap — this is a financial necessity,” Superintendent Gary L. Otto said.

The school board approved a preliminary balanced budget on Feb. 11 with the maximum tax increase allowed of 1.26 mills under the state’s Act 1 cap, using $1.4 million from the fund balance, a $2.6 million expenditure reduction by eliminating kindergarten and all extracurricular activities including sports and marching band, eliminating two school buses, and furloughing 40 professional staff (28 full time).

“You’re not looking out for the best interests of the kids by considering cutting kindergarten,” said Becky Boyer of Douglassville.

“I’ll repeat this again,” said board President Andrew Basile, “it’s not a choice between what we want but what we have to do. We recognize that kindergarten is important.”

Another view was offered by Tina Olivette, of Douglassville, who said kindergarten is not important.

She said kindergarten teaches numbers, colors and more that should be taught at home, and that the playing field evens out in first and second grades.

“I would much rather put my money into high school programs — instead of kindergarten — so the kids are prepared for the future,” Olivette said.“Kindergarten, first and second grade are all about teaching kids the fundamentals, but it starts at home. People are looking for day care (with kindergarten). They don’t care that high school programs are being cut and the kids can’t compete — get into college.”

A board motion to put the $486,000 kindergarten program back into the budget was defeated once again, this time by a 5-4 vote.

Board members opposed to the motion repeated their Feb. 11 opinion that the board needs to evaluate all the revenue and expense numbers during this Wednesday’s budget workshop.

Discussions will continue at budget workshop Wednesday will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Daniel Boone Middle School.

Basile said the workshop will include ideas put forth by the Revenue Enhancement Committee and that new numbers may be available from the board’s continued negotiations with all of its contractual partners.

He said debt service payments total $7 million a year through 2034.The annual cost of the district’s salaries and benefits is $3.5 million.

Daniel Boone Education Association President Andrea Hicks said teachers took a $1 million pay freeze two years ago and the salary adjustment continues to save the district $800,000 each year.

Revenue enhancement ideas include possibly eliminating five more school buses and saving $150,000, working with the Amity Athletic Club, Birdsboro, to provide sports programs, possibly using more than $1.4 million from the fund balance, increasing the activity fee for three sports categories/tiers (and expanding that to band and extracurriculars), increasing student parking fees, and implementing a flexible summer schedule.

Subers will determine if the school district can charge a kindergarten enrollment fee and if that would survive a legal challenge.

One board member said that if the district cannot charge a fee, and the board does cut kindergarten, the facilities (such as the Amity Primary Center) could be leased by a for-profit business that would run a kindergarten program.